Authorities Order German Court to Retry Three Charged with Beating, Killing Jew

November 26, 1947

Munich (Nov. 25)

American military authorities today ordered a German court in Wuerzburg, Bavaria, to retry three Germans charged with having beaten a ## so severely during the 1938 programs that he died.

The defendants led a mob in an assault on 65-year-old Ernst Leberman. After was beaten Leberman was thrown into jail where he died the following day. The ?ctor who in 1938 certified that Leberman died of “hardening of the arteries,” told ?e court that he had actually died as a result of injuries. The defendants insist that if Leberman died of injuries, they were inflicted after he was imprisoned.

On the basis of this evidence, the court convicted the Germans simply of ##sault and sentenced them to terms of one year to eighteen months. Today’s military government order instructed the court to try the three on the more serious charge of inflicting bodily injury resulting in death.